


Cookies

by myrna123



Series: Weight Bearing Universe [2]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M, Post-Canon Cardassia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 09:43:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6748699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrna123/pseuds/myrna123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes a little scene will pop in my head, so I write it down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cookies

**Author's Note:**

> Presenting Garak and Bashir as I wish they had been written. Any resemblance to the characters as they appeared on the show is probably totally coincidental.

Garak heard the chime on his PADD that told him there was an incoming message from Julian. He looked at the time and knew he'd be at the office at least another three hours, so he figured he'd better see what was in the message.

He chuckled at the subject line _Your Daughter_ and opened the file to see that Julian had attached a video. It was only a few minutes long, so Garak click to view it and sat back in his chair.

Six-year old Ahnak was sitting on one of the tall stools at the kitchen counter. "Done!" she announced, swooping her PADD to the side as she finished the last of her homework. She lifted her arms in victory and said, "Cookie time!"

"Oh, wait, Love, one more," said Julian. "Maths and then cookies."

Ahnak grimaced at the PADD and gave her bapa a look that said she hadn't been looking forward to this conversation. "We're not doing that one," she said.

Julian read over the message from the teacher to see if he'd misunderstood the instructions. "Why?" he asked as he read.

"It doesn't go in my brains," Ahnak said. "I tried, but it won't go in there, so I'm not doing it anymore."

"Oh," Julian said, looking perplexed by the news.

"Bapa, I just come this way," Ahnak said with a shrug, eyes wide and very serious.

They'd been talking a lot lately about differences—between girls and boys, Bapa's smooth brown skin and the grey ridges she and Zahara shared with Father, short and tall, thin and wide. There were a lot of things about people that were simply a function of the way they were born—and if someone came a certain way, they shouldn't be expected to change just because that way was different than other beings.

"Hmm," said Julian. "That's a pretty big decision."

Ahnak nodded gravely in agreement. She leaned in toward Julian and said, "Sooo, cookies!"

Julian looked thoughtful as he retrieved the cookies from pantry.

Garak hadn't actually believed there was such a thing as "animal crackers," until Julian had pointed them out at the market. The things one became aware of once one became a parent was mind boggling.

Julian walked over to the counter and said, "I think making a tough decision like that deserves 10 cookies instead of five, don't you?"

Ahnak's eyes grew impossibly wider. "Yeah!" she agreed.

Julian dropped the cookies onto the plate in front of her, then moved to return the box to the pantry.

Ahnak looked from the cookies to Julian's turned back, to the cookies and then Julian again. Humans had some kind of ridiculous saying about presents and horse teeth that referenced a situation where one had been given some kind of windfall, and probably shouldn't even mention that a little detail was out of place, but… Well, this was _cookies_ after all.

"Bapa, you said 10 cookies," Ahnak tentatively pointed out.

"I know!" Julian agreed, motioning at the cookies in front of Ahnak; his tone suggesting they were sharing amazement at such delightful good fortune.

Ahnak gave Julian a look that said she absolutely hated being the bearer of bad news. "But that's not 10," Ahnak said.

Julian frowned and looked closer at the cookies. "It's probably 10," he said.

Ahnak shook her head. "No, Bapa it's not."

Julian sighed as though his busy schedule hardly had time to entertain this kind of thing and said, "Fine, how many cookies to make it 10?" he asked, heading back to the pantry to grab the cookie box.

"Three!" Ahnak said with a happy bounce.

Julian stuck his hand in the box, then froze suddenly. "Oh dear," he said with a look of dawning horror on his face.

"What?" Ahnak asked, her face a carbon copy of Julian's sudden concern. "Are we out of cookies?"

"No," Julian said. "But Ahnak, you just did math! It does go in your brain! Now we have to do the homework."

Ahnak's expressive face morphed quickly from worry, to confusion, to realization, to resignation. She and Julian traded exceedingly polite smiles.

She played with her cookies for a bit—grouping the similar animals together, stacking them, putting them in a circle, then a square, then a triangle, obviously stalling the start of the math homework. Finally, she picked up one of the cookies and nibbled on the edge.

Julian just leaned against the counter, patiently waiting.

Ahnak wrinkled her nose at him. "Bapa?" she said. "You kinda tricked me."

"Yes," Julian said, no apology in his tone, just admission.

He leaned down on the countertop, chin in his hand and his eyes even with Ahnak's. He wrinkled his own nose and said, "You were kind of tricking me too with that stuff about math not fitting in your brain."

True enough.

With a thoughtful nod that suggested next time's trickery would be informed by today's, Ahnak opened her math homework, but before she began her assignment, her face suddenly blossomed into a full-on, gap-toothed grin, and she gasped with delight at a sudden realization. She grabbed Julian's arm excitedly and said, "Bapa! Fadda is going to be so proud of us!"


End file.
